1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus and method. More particularly, the invention relates to an image recording apparatus and method for performing an image information thinning-out processing corresponding to the time elapsed from the recording of an image file of a video signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the spread of digital apparatuses, various image information recording apparatuses such as electronic still cameras have been developed and manufactured. In such a camera, solid state image pickup elements, such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) array or the like are generally used. When such an image information recording apparatus is continuously used as, for example, a monitoring camera, image information stored in a memory tends to be a burden on the storage capacity.
JP-A-10-276400 discloses a technique concerning an electronic still camera. With the image recording apparatus disclosed in JP-A-10-276400, when the capacity of a recording medium is insufficient, a user selects a screen to be erased and deletes or compresses the screen. Moreover, the image recording apparatus deletes or compresses the oldest image automatically. The image recording apparatus can reduce a burden of operation for the user.
However, in the conventional technique, the user has to designate an image to be deleted. As a result, the user has to perform a complicated operation.
If images are deleted in order from an oldest image in the same way, the user does not need to perform the operation for deleting the images. However, since all old images are deleted from a memory, the user cannot see old images even if the user wishes to do so.